Prayerfully rising to the challenge

As Bishop Shane outlined in his column on p. 2, the most recent Synod set two goals or challenges for every parish and congregation in the diocese.

1) by 2028, each of our parishes and congregations will be engaged in contextual mission, and each will be involved with at least one new venture;

2) by 2031, the 135th anniversary of our diocese, we will have 35 new worshipping communities, in a great variety of shapes and sizes.

Depending on your perspective, this is either very daunting or an exciting development in our ministry in this part of creation. One thing is certain: we must learn how to do contextual mission.

Paul Mugarura has some valuable insights on this topic. Having immigrated to Canada from Uganda, he wrote a reflection last year that highlighted some of the difficulties new Canadians, even Anglicans if they are from a different culture, face when trying to find a church home in Canada. (“My prayer is that “helpful” sorting out of people will cease.” Crosstalk, Feb. 2023 p.14). He and his wife Evelyn also lead a new worshipping community on Sunday afternoons at Trinity Anglican Church in Ottawa with Archdeacon Mark Whittall. So, it seemed appropriate to share some of the words of inspiration he offered at Synod as parishes across the diocese enter into “A Time of Prayer,” to discern how God might be calling them to serve in their changing communities.

Our experience of change is not new. … With the exception of people descended from Indigenous peoples, every single one of us can trace our lineage to a person or group of people who chose to leave their homes and try to start something new in North America. While some may act with surprise at the changes happening in society around us, in truth, we have always been a country for which change is constant. We have always been a country that is a destination for people from all over the world. The mosaic of multiculturalism has been an ever-present reality in our country, even though it may have been historically dominated by one ethnic majority.

As leaders and members of faith communities, we have seen this inevitable change. We’ve seen our communities change, and the makeup of our congregations change as a result. And as the contexts around us change, we’ve all been part of initiatives within our congregations to try to meet the needs of the communities in which we are situated. For example, many of us at one time or another have raised money for new immigrants to Canada. Many of us have responded to calls to be a part of meeting the needs for unhoused people or those facing incredible financial difficulty. Many are on a journey to be more inclusive in our language and posture towards society. Many more still are growing in our desire to see the dignity and voices of Indigenous peoples of this land restored.

As we all know, not every change in our contexts has resulted in a net-positive change for our congregations around the city. Through the years, we’ve even seen the position of privilege that our houses of faith held in our communities change, and as a result, we’ve had to walk through years of contracting membership within our congregations. This is no longer a theoretical conversation, but it is a reality that presents a real challenge to the church of today to continue ministry in a context in which we can no longer coast on the position of privilege and authority that the church held in society in the past.

Rising to meet the challenges of our changing contexts is not something new to us.

I believe that the reason the Anglican church has persisted for so long and did not die off after a generation was because those who were stewards of this movement before us, met the challenges of their changing contexts head on. What is different, however, is the accelerated pace of demographic, cultural, societal and religious change. And so, I am persuaded that the pace of our response has to be adjusted. Our capacity to respond has to be increased. Our imagination has to be activated. Our willingness to try new things has to be encouraged.

As our context changes, the questions that spiritually seeking people ask will change. As our demographics change, we will have to navigate the tension between stewarding our legacy and imagining a new Anglican movement that thrives in the future. As the ethnicities in our communities change, we will have to make room for expressions of faith that may differ from our historical expressions. As minorities of all kinds are allowed to find their voices in an increasingly progressive society, we are going to have to find ways to speak with humility and be champions for justice where we may have been silent or complicit with injustice in the past.

The rapidly changing context in which we currently live may look daunting to some, but I have come to see things differently. I believe that this is an opportunity to add new pages to the story of the Anglican movement in this city. I believe that we can be stewards of the necessary work that is needed to reach spiritually seeking people. I believe that we can build on the work of legacy congregations by starting new faith communities which are not viewed as competition because they are reaching new people. I believe that we can be agents of justice in a world beset by injustice. I believe that we can be instruments of grace and peace in a world of deep division and suspicion. I believe that the work the church has to do is not yet complete. Our changing context illuminates exciting new roads to travel. I believe that the Spirit beckons.